This lesson provides several ideas for fun extension activities that you can use after teaching basic lessons about pronouns. (See “More Pronoun Activity Resources” at the bottom of this lesson section; you might use these resources for reinforcing your basic lessons before using the activities that follow here.)

Pronoun Extension Activity Ideas

Pronoun Activity 1

Write a list of pronouns on the board or a sheet of chart paper. Then challenge students to write a paragraph about themselves (perhaps the paragraph might be about a favorite hobby, pet or food). But they must write this paragraph without using any of the pronouns you have listed. Invite some students to share their paragraphs and discuss the difficulty they had completing the assignment. As it turns out, pronouns are very useful parts of speech!

Pronoun Activity 2

Provide each student with a copy of the same news story from a newspaper. Challenge students to circle all the pronouns in the article. How many pronouns did they find? Provide time for students to share the pronouns they circled. Students might identify each as a singular or plural pronoun.

Pronoun Activity 3

Next, provide students with the Play Ball: A Pronoun Story worksheet. You might project it on a classroom screen or SMART Board or you might provide a printed copy of it for each student. Have students number a sheet of lined paper from 1 to 25. Challenge them to identify the noun (person, place, or thing) to which each of the story’s underlined pronouns refers.

“Play Ball” Worksheet Text:

Bobby, Angela, and Cindy were so happy to get tickets to the ball game. (1) They had been looking forward to seeing a game for a long time. (2) “I hope the Tigers win today’s game,” Cindy said. (3) “They have lost four games in a row, so I hope they win (4) it for (5) me.”

(6) “I hope they win this one for (7) US!” said Angela, before (8) she jumped up to cheer for the players as (9) they took the field.

The kids watched the pitcher for the Broncos warm up on the mound. (10) They agreed that (11) he was looking good as the first of the Tigers’ batters stepped up to the plate.

The first pitch was right over the plate. (12) It was a perfect pitch. “Strike one!” shouted the umpire, adding a big wave of (13) his hand for emphasis. The next pitch – and the (14) one after that – were two more perfect strikes. The Tiger batter dragged (15) his feet as he returned to the dugout.

Two more Tigers batters stepped to the plate and both of (16) them faced the same fate as the first batter – two more strikeouts. (17) “I’m not sure this is going to be the game I want (18) it to be,” said Bobby. (19) His two friends nodded in agreement. (20) They saw the writing on the wall: unless the Tigers quickly turned things around, (21) they faced a continuation of their losing streak. (22) That would be five losses in a row!

Bobby, Angela, and Cindy knew the team had (23) their work cut out for them, but (24) they refused to leave. They stayed until the final out was made in what ended up being a 5-4 loss for (25) their team.

“Play Ball” Worksheet Answer Key:

They refers to Bobby, Angela, and Cindy

I refers to Cindy

They refers to the team (the Tigers)

it refers to the game

me refers to Cindy

I refers to Angela

us refers to Bobby, Angela, and Cindy

she refers to Angela

they refers to the players

They refers to the kids (Bobby, Angela, and Cindy)

he refers to the Broncos’ pitcher

It refers to the pitch

his refers to the umpire

one refers to the pitch

his refers to the batter

them refers to the batters

I’m refers to Bobby

it refers to the game

His refers to Bobby

They refers to Bobby, Angela, and Cindy

they refers to the team (the Tigers)

That refers to the loss/the losing streak

their refers to the team

they refers to Bobby, Angela, and Cindy

their refers to Bobby, Angela, and Cindy

MORE PRONOUN ACTIVITY RESOURCES

Before using the activity ideas above, you might use some of these online lessons to introduce or reinforce the concept of pronouns.